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It's been 17 days since a bathroom sex incident attracted international attention at South Fort Myers High School, and Lee County's chief of schools says the district is still investigating what happened and how to fix it.

'I still consider this a developing situation,' said Superintendent Greg Adkins, who added that discipline, for both staff and students, could still be forthcoming. 'We are are not even done from a school district perspective.'

Since Principal Melissa Layner reported to law enforcement the after-school incident involving a 15-year-old girl and multiple male students, 16 students have been disciplined, including five suspensions.

More than week after the May 17 incident took place, one student was arrested on two felony charges of cruelty to child for allowing a child to engage in a sex act and possession of obscene material.

The 16-year-old student pleaded not guilty to the charges. He was ordered to 21 days of home detention, during which he is barred from school grounds and cannot have contact with anyone involved with the case or any unsupervised contact with anyone under the age of 15.

A point of criticism for the district has been the fact that the student, a football player, was able to play in a game on May 20 — four days after the incident occurred on campus.

'First of all, we're not going to put athletics over student conduct, and that is something that has to be a part of our culture here in Lee County,' Adkins said. 'And, second, one of the things that makes disciplining any student difficult whenever there's law enforcement involved is that the first thing we have to do as a school district is take a step back and let law enforcement do their job.'

Adkins said a law enforcement investigation has 'priority' over the school system, 'which means that sometimes we can't get ourselves involved with a situation as quickly as we might like to do out of respecsct for what they have to do.'

As facts continue to surface about the incident, the district is taking action. But Adkins was clear: what happened at South was unacceptable.

'My attitude about it is that this is a severe problem,' he said. 'This is something that is unacceptable as far as behavior is concerned, it is unacceptable that it happened, and we have to determine what is the best course of action so this never happens again, both in these children's lives and any other kid who goes to any other high school or middle school in this district.'

When asked if there are any expected staffing changes — in or out of South Fort Myers High — Adkins said he wasn't 'prepared to answer that right now.' He added: 'There is not a professional standards active investigation as of this moment in time, but I will say we are continuing to look at this situation now that law enforcement's role has wound down. As is with any case, if there's a need to involve them, we would certainly do that.'

And as Adkins said multiple times in the interview, he considers this a 'developing' case. 'I don't think we're at an end point yet,' he said.

Another point of concern has been the difference between how other school-related incidents were recently handled, like an inappropriate rap video posted online by basketball players at Lehigh Senior High School that landed them — and their coaches — in trouble.

The main difference, Adkins said, comes down to supervision. Where the Lehigh players were 'in an area that was supposed to be supervised,' the situation at South occurred during a transitional time, much like the changing of classroom periods.

'After the ringing of the bells, students are really moving in many different directions,' Adkins said, adding that some students head to the bus ramp, others to their cars and some remain on campus for athletics, activities like band or after-school tutoring. 'It's a lot of people moving in a lot of directions.'

Typically, he said principals come up with supervision plans with targeted areas that they watch out for. 'You have to know your building and you have to know all your hiding places and know that you have it covered.'

However, he added: 'No plan is 100 percent fool proof, but I think all plans can get better.'

And that's why the district is moving forward with a way to better streamline school security and safety with the creation of a new task-force.

He made the announcement Friday morning during his 'State of Our Schools' speech with the Foundation for Lee County Public School's annual breakfast.

Here, he referenced the 'very difficult, difficult last few weeks' the district has seen, not only from the South Fort Myers sex case, but also the heartbreaking news that two high school students this week died — one in a shooting, another in a morning bus-stop accident.

'We just have the kids for a short period of the day. You're talking six, seven, eight hours, depending on their after-school activities, but they're out there in the world the rest of the time,' he said.

That's where the task-force comes in handy, as it will combine teachers and principals from schools with well-developed plans, like Riverdale and Fort Myers high schools, as well as elected officials from around the county, law enforcement and community members.

The goal is for this group to propose ideas to him by June 30, so he can get them approved by the school board this summer and in place at every school in the district before the start of school in August.

'We all as a community bare some of the responsibility in keeping them safe,' he said.